Part of the reason I enjoy the Western genre so much is because of how free it makes me feel. Like I'm the one who is out exploring wild uncharted territory. The old west is whatever you want to make of it, so when we get see men who take advantage of that by manipulating the setting to their own benefit that is when it feels like the Western is at its best.
"Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" exemplifies that more than most other Westerns and does that spectacularly through the way its two lead characters use the wild west as their own personal playground. Pat Garrett (James Coburn) is a famous outlaw who has seen that, as he gets older, the world around him seems to be changing. So he decides to quit being a criminal and becomes a sheriff, using his first bit of legal power to hunt down his old friend Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson). Billy won't go down without a fight though, and the two spend most of the movie chasing each other, while Pat comes to terms with his new morality and world view, and Billy drinks, shoots, and screws his way through New Mexico with a huge smile.
The film was directed by Sam Peckinpah, who was known for his over-the-top violence in films like "The Wild Bunch." While this movie has a violent moment here or there, it does take its time to build the rambunctious yet nostalgic world of the old west. It paints the actions of the characters with a longingness for a simpler time and how beautiful it must have felt to own the world if you were good enough with a gun. Pat Garrett longs to be apart of that world again, but knows that it will be ending soon and so he has to change if he's going to fit in it. Billy still lives in that world and will fight for it to his dying breath.
The film is perfectly summed up near the beginning when Billy asks Pat how it feels to be a man of the law now. Pat responds with, "It feels like times have changed." Billy follows this up with a big drink of whiskey and says, "Times maybe. But not me."
These two don't share much screentime together, but from that exchange you get how they have built an undying friendship while also establishing an ideological conflict between the two that must come to clash.
From what I understand, the film isn't accurate on how Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid actually acted, and that might make some people angry, but I see the film as more of an appreciation and love for the old west and the type of lives these men chose to lead. Sam Peckinpah loves the myths these men created and wants to make them legends from a bygone era.
Overall, I adore "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid." It is fun, emotional, beautifully-shot and has the best sense of longing for the west than any other Western I have seen. The film takes a simple like cowboys vs. outlaws and turns it on its head, creating a conflict that never gets tiresome, especially when you have two charismatic no-nonsense actors playing your leads.
Final Grade: A-
After I fell in love with "Sleeper," my interest in Woody Allen had been revitalized. I appreciated films like "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and "Midnight in Paris" a bit more and wanted to explore Allen's filmography in greater detail, hoping to find more hidden gems that did not feel so narcissistic like "Hannah and Her Sisters." Now that I've watched this strange Woody Allen film, "Manhattan Murder Mystery," I've come to the conclusion that he can be an engaging, wonderful director when his stories are given a purpose and he's not pointing the camera at himself.
Part of the reason films like "Annie Hall" and "Hannah" leave no impact on me is because they feel so aimless, going from one scene to the next like nothing matters. It is not until Woody Allen sets a distinct plot to follow that his unique narrative charm can come through, as with this film which follows a middle-aged New York couple (played by Woody Allen and Diane Keaton) as their next door neighbor dies unexpectedly. Her husband acts surprisingly calm about her death, so Keaton's character, Carol, begins to speculate that he murdered the wife, which Allen's character, Larry, brushes off as her being crazy or looking for trouble.
At first, this is all that happens - wild speculation based on little to no facts. Our protagonists had just met the elder couple the night prior to the death, so they know nothing about their personalities or their marriage. But once Carol starts to take her speculative fiction too far, she ends up finding clues that might link the husband to murder.
Carol ends up being the focus of "Manhattan Murder Mystery" so Woody Allen's neurotic and sometimes insufferable nature takes a backseat. He still plays a coward who would rather read a book about how to trim your nose hairs instead of go out and solve a murder, but at least we get to witness a mystery with a great sense of humor about whether our heroes should be involved in this.
The mystery is effective because it all plays out like Carol's mid-life crisis. Her only son has just gone off to college, she's had plenty of opportunities to explore the world and is now bored with everything else, constantly looking for something to do. Her husband is a stick in the mud, content with where he's at, but she wants something adventurous and different, like solving a murder. Every action she takes seems justified because of her thrill-seeking nature. Even if she makes several missteps along the way, like forgetting her reading glasses in the potential murderer's bedroom, or getting too drunk on wine, Carol's journey is never boring.
"Manhattan Murder Mystery" starts off innocently enough but continually builds tension, first through rumors that eventually turn into clues and fact, without ever losing its comedic touch. Woody Allen's neurotic behavior is not as annoying here because it compliments the danger of this situation. While it is not as funny as some of Allen's other work, the story is solid and the performances compliment the dual tone of the film. This is absolutely a Woody Allen film worth checking out.
Final Grade: B+
I'm currently at the point where I've seen so many westerns about the cavalry fighting Native Americans that they are all blending together now. I honestly did not care about the plot of "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" because it has been done to death. What makes westerns of this caliber stand out among the vast range of competing films is not plot or characters, but anything else eye-catching. Something unique that the viewer will remember long after the movie is finished.
For "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon," that would be its use of Technicolor. There is a distinct charm to Technicolor films that you do not see in today's films, where certain colors feel drained and others practically pop off the screen. If there is one color that was made for that type of camera work it would be red. The setting sun and its reach across the tall clouds was mesmerizing in this movie. I could have stared at the backgrounds for hours. Though it certainly helps that the film was mostly shot in Monument Valley, which John Ford always knows how to capture perfectly.
Overall, "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" is an average western tale that is bolstered by some colorful cinematography. I found myself being more entertained when the film did not focus on its characters and instead let the calm feeling of Monument Valley set in. The film does not do anything terrible, so if you're bored and want to watch an okay John Ford western, then give this one a shot.
Final Grade: C
"Dogora" is one of the stranger entires in Toho's daikaiju filmography, which is saying a lot. Considering we have films where Frankenstein's heart gets hit with an atomic bomb and turns into a monster, a film about a giant flying submarine with a drill up front, and one where the Earth's solution to a giant meteorite is to push the entire planet out of the meteor's path. The oddity of "Dogora" mostly comes down to its strange mix in genres, combining a giant monster flick with a bank robbery gone wrong plot.
The film follows a group of international diamond thieves, who have successfully stolen gems from France and America and have set their sights on Japan next. They are being taled by both Japanese police and international agents, both of whom want the glory of bringing the thieves in, so the cops are always at each other's throats. But everything takes a wacky turn when most of the stolen diamonds are sucked up into the sky, consumed by a giant space squid who feeds on diamonds and coal.
The plot with the diamond thieves has a mix of comedy and drama, since the Japanese cop and American agent dispose of each other in the most amusing ways like locking the other in a hotel room or giving the other a fake gun. While at the same time, there's a lot of double crossing and selfish actions with the thieves. One of them is even facing a constant moral dilemma of turning on her comrades or never making a name for herself. The acting is handled fine and the pacing is serviceable, but it does feel at odds with the monster plot.
The scenes with Dogora are some of the most beautifully photographed of all the Toho monster movies, especially with how the monster typically blends in with the sky and the vast range of colors in the clouds when the monster emerges. I feel like many stills in "Dogora" belong in an art gallery. The way the monster attacks is also strangely alluring, lifting everything up with its invisible tendrils, including a massive bridge. For 1964, these effects are impressive.
Overall, I enjoyed "Dogora" though the monster scenes were a much bigger draw than the ones with the thieves. It is funny to see how these two vastly different genres bounce off each other and are somehow intertwined. It's like watching a thriller that also tries to be a comedy - it may not do both extremely well, but you are interested to see how those genres will mix.
Final Grade: B-
I do not think most spy movies are very effective forms of storytelling. They are, at best, vehicles for well-shot and choreographed action sequences, normally in close-quarters or in chase sequences, but most of the time fail at telling an emotionally impactful narrative. This mostly comes back to our lead character, who is more often than not stoic and immune to the events that are happening around him and comes across as emotionally detatched or uncaring about the world around them.
He'll save the world and look cool while doing it, but if he doesn't give a damn about anything then why should we care about what he does?
That's not to say all spy movies are terrible, since films like "Skyfall" and "Goldfinger" are wonderful, while others like Paul Feig's "Spy" and Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" flipped the spy genre on its head and played it mostly for laughs. But when I watch most spy movies, by the time we reach the end of the second act and everything starts to get tense, I often find myself uninterested in what had come before and what is about to come. I will often remember the action sequences, but find it hard to remember how or why these bits of drama happened in the first place.
David Leitch's "Atomic Blonde" is a perfect example of why I don't care for the spy genre. While the film has stunning visuals and great use of color, which is very reminiscent of Leitch's previous film "John Wick," and some brutal action sequences, the story and characters leave a lot to be desired and ultimately made the experience feel a bit hollow.
Set in 1989 on the eve of the Berlin Wall collapsing, MI6 agent James Gasciogne is killed by KGB agent Yuri Bakhtin for a wristwatch that contains a piece of microfilm that has the names and activity of every active KGB agent in the field, which Yuri plans to sell on the black market to the highest bidder. MI6 sends in their top operative, agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron), to find the watch and kill the agent that ousted Gasciogne, known as Agent Satchel. Lorraine also meets with agent David Percival (James McAvoy) who has gone native, but maybe her only way of getting around Berlin.
I'll give "Atomic Blonde" this much - it perfectly captures the feel of the 1980s. From the neon clothing, to the rock music, to the rampant experimental drugs, this film screams of the 80s. This film eats grittiness for breakfast and neon lights for dinner. There's a certain zeitgeist to every decade and "Atomic Blonde" nails what it fells like to live during the 1980s, capped off by a boisterous soundtrack.
The action sequences in "Atomic Blonde" are quite different from what I expected. There are some longer fight sequences that use long takes, and many of them show fatigue and exhaustion in our characters, like they're always fighting with everything they've got. I don't remember many fight scenes where the hero gets tired, but this was a nice change of pace. Watching Charlize Theron trying to catch her breath in the middle of a fight was refreshing and honest.
However, the end result "Atomic Blonde" wants to go for is unsatisfying. This is because Lorraine feels so detached and emotionless from her job. She has the same emotion taking someone's life that you or I would have from going to grocery store to get milk. This works for first two-thirds of the film when she is putting all the pieces together, but once she thinks everything is solved and has to act upon it is when the film starts to fall apart.
This could be less of a problem with "Atomic Blonde" and more of a problem with the narrative style of the spy genre in general. This film could just be following the tropes of James Bond movies by having a protagonist that only cares about finishing the mission. But in any case, this is a trope I wish to see less of.
Overall, "Atomic Blonde" is fun at points, but uninterested at others. The film has a unique feel when it comes to atmosphere and fighting style, with some great cinematography during the action. But the story is dull and the characters are even more bland. If you're going to watch "Atomic Blonde," I would say take its style over substance.
Final Grade: C
I missed this monster movie when it was out in theaters, and now I'm glad that I did not spend more than a couple of bucks on this film.
The plot of "Colossal" revolves around Gloria (Anne Hathaway), an unemployed writer and a drunk who moves from New York back to her home town, where she meets up with an old classmate, Oscar (Jason Sudeikis). But shortly after she moves back, she learns of a giant monster that attacked Seoul, South Korea, but finds out that it did some very strange movements. After rewatching some footage she finds out the truth - Gloria is in control of that monster.
Now, you'd think this would be a great premise for a comedic giant monster movie, especially with the actors involved in the movie. A drunk that controls the movements of a giant Godzilla-like monster and she knows that has this power. How can you mess that up?
Well, "Colossal" really screws it up quickly.
Let's ignore the ludicrous explanation used to show why Gloria has this power (she has to be at this children's playground at exactly 8:05 a.m. and only has control while she's in the confines of the park) or that Oscar also gets his own robot monster by the same method. We only ever see the monsters through television or computer screens, never getting a full detailed look at the monsters. There are even scenes where monsters fight, but we hardly ever get to see them fighting, just Gloria and Oscar rolling around the ground.
On top of that, I do not ever recall laughing at anything in "Colossal." The film was billed as a comedy, and these is some of the most depressing characters I've seen in a long time. After a while, the film seems to give up on comedy and focuses on an entirely different aspect - that Oscar has been stalking Gloria for years.
Admittedly, "Colossal" gets a bit better when we learn Oscar's true nature - that he feels his life will never amount to anything and this is his way of lashing out on the world. Still, it takes a long time to get to that point, and we first have to watch bland monster sequences, unfunny scenes and witness Anne Hathaway get beat up.
"Colossal" was a chore to get through. As a monster movie, it leaves the audience hanging on those important sequence. As a comedy, there is no life or joy to found here. If you are going to rent or buy a monster movie that just came to DVD or Blu-Ray, go with "Shin Godzilla" before turning to "Colossal" and save yourself a headache.
Final Grade: D
If words could kill, "The Lion in Winter" would be the most brutal film ever made.
Imagine if "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" was set during mediveal times and concerned a "King Lear" type story. That should give you an idea of how uncomfortable "The Lion in Winter" can be, while still being a wordsmith like William Shakespeare. Every word uttered in this film is carefully calculated to be an emotional dagger right into our characters' hearts, as every one of them is overcome with a lust for greed and power.
In the age of King Henry II (Peter O'Toole), he has now become an old man and still has not choosen who will be the next King. So for Christmas, Henry invites his whole family for the holiday, including his estranged sons, the rough and selfish Richard (Anthony Hopkins), the cold and calculating Geoffrey (John Castle), and the inexperienced and naive John (Nigel Terry), as well as his wife Eleanor (Katharine Hepburn), who Henry has imprisoned for the last few years. Henry also invites the young king of France (Timothy Dalton). Henry says he will use this time to decide who will be the next king, mostly leaning towards John since he's the only one Henry likes even if he would be terrible king, while he also tries to make amends for his past sins, all while abusing his power as king over all of them.
"The Lion in Winter" is mostly a game of chess played through words and subtle manipulations of others, played by King Henry and Eleanor. They both have much larger schemes than either wants to show, especially Eleanor who takes every opportunity to goad Henry and show him that he is not as powerful or as perfect as he thinks. Both take absolute delight in knocking the other down a peg, while both scream at the top of their lungs to see who is the loudest.
This is done masterfully through Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn's performances, as they show the deeper parts of Henry and Eleanor's love-hate relationship as well as how much they need each other. These are both cruel, greedy people who want the other acknowledge their brilliance, yet they adore one another because they force the best out of each other. This comes during their quieter moments when the two reflect on when they first met and how their love and need for each other has evolved over the years. Tormenting each other with power plays and mind games has changed their relationship into a furious struggle to maintain dominance, and they would not have it any other way.
Overall, "The Lion in Winter" is a lot of fun, if only for the wordplay, devestating insults and the relationship between Henry and Eleanor. This feels like a medival tragedy only Shakespeare could have written, so it is amazing that writer James Goldman could create such a fascinating screenplay. The pacing is a bit slow at times, but the tension during the final act is absolutley worth it.
Final Grade: B+
